This invention relates to magnetic sound recording and playing back apparatus, and more particularly to improvements of the cassette loading mechanism.
Magnetic sound recording and playing back apparatus or decks utilizing magnetic tapes contained in a cassette are generally constructed as upper surface operating type, that is mode changing for switching the operation among playing back, recording, rewinding, quick feed, etc., loading and unloading of the cassette, and other operations are all performed on the upper panel of the holder of the apparatus.
It is a recent trend to mount such apparatus or decks on a rack together with various stereo components such as a stereo tuner, integral amplifier, etc., and to incorporate said apparatus or decks into the center box of a household stereo set. Such tendency has resulted in the development of the so-called front panel type sound recording and playing back apparatus in which an operating panel is provided on the front side of the holder and all control elements for mode changing, loading and unloading of the cassette, and other operations are mounted on the front operating panel.
Although various types of the front panel type cassette sound recording and playing back apparatus or decks have already been proposed they have the following common problems. More particularly, according to the prior art cassette loading mechanism the cassette is inserted into the holder in the horizontal direction through a cassette insertion opening provided through the front panel and then the cassette falls down in the vertical direction to reach the sound recording or playing back position. In this manner, as the cassette is moved in both horizontal and vertical directions the construction of the cassette loading mechanism is complicated and expensive. In addition, such complicated construction accompanies frequent faults. Such troubles are caused by the fact that manual cassette loading operation is automated.